If you intend usinghumor in your talk to make people smile, you must know how to identify sharedexperiences and problems. Your humor must be relevant to the audience andshould help to show them that you are one of them or that you understand theirsituation and are in sympathy with their point of view. Depending on whom youare addressing, the problems will be different. If you are talking to a groupof managers, you may refer to the disorganized methods of their secretaries;alternatively if you are addressing secretaries, you may want to comment ontheir disorganized bosses。

Here is an example, which I heard at a nurses’ convention,of a story which works well because the audience all shared the same view ofdoctors. A man arrives in heaven and is being shown around by St. Peter. Hesees wonderful accommodations, beautiful gardens, sunny weather, and so on.Everyone is very peaceful, polite and friendly until, waiting in a line forlunch, the new arrival is suddenly pushed aside by a man in a white coat, whorushes to the head of the line, grabs his food and stomps over to a table byhimself. “Who is that?” the new arrival asked St. Peter. “Oh, that’s God,” came thereply, “but sometimes he thinks he’s a doctor。”

If you are part of the group which you are addressing, you will bein a position to know the experiences and problems which are common to all ofyou and it’ll be appropriate for you to make a passing remark about theinedible canteen food or the chairman’s notorious badtaste in ties. With other audiences you mustn’t attempt to cut inwith humor as they will resent an outsider making disparaging remarks abouttheir canteen or their chairman. You will be on safer ground if you stick toscapegoats like the Post Office or the telephone system。

If you feel awkward being humorous, you must practice so that itbecomes more natural, include a few casual and apparently off-the-cuff remarkswhich you can deliver in a relaxed and unforced manner. Often it’s thedelivery which causes the audience to smile, so speak slowly and remember thata raised eyebrow or an unbelieving look may help to show that you are making alight-hearted remark。

Look for the humor. It often comes from the unexpected. A twist ona familiar quote “If at first you don’t succeed, give up” or a play on words or on a situation. Search for exaggeration andunderstatements. Look at your talk and pick out a few words or sentences whichyou can turn about and inject with humor。

1. To make your humor work, you should

[A]take advantage of different kinds of audience。

[B]make fun of the disorganized people。

[C]address different problems to different people。

[D]show sympathy for your listeners。

2. The joke about doctors implies that, in the eyes of nurses, theyare

[A]impolite to new arrivals。

[B]very conscious of their godlike role。

[C]entitled to some privileges。

[D]very busy even during lunch hours。

3. It can be inferred from the text that public services

[A]have benefited many people。

[B]are the focus of public attention。

[C]are an inappropriate subject for humor。

[D]have often been the laughing stock。

4. To achieve the desired result, humorous stories should bedelivered

[A]in well-worded language。

[B]as awkwardly as possible。

[C]in exaggerated statements。

[D]as casually as possible。

5. The best title for the text may be

[A]Use Humor Effectively。

[B]Various Kinds of Humor。

[C]Add Humor to Speech。

[D]Different Humor Strategies。

名师解析

1. To make your humor work, you should 要想让你的幽默奏效，你应该

[A]take advantage of different kinds of audience。(充分)利用不同的观众。

[B]make fun of the disorganized people。取笑那些做事混乱的人。

[C]address different problems to different people。和不同的人谈不同的问题。

[D]show sympathy for your listeners。同情你的听众。

【答案】 C

【考点】 段落主旨题。

【分析】 根据题目知道本题考查的是“幽默须知”的内容，定位到第一段。文中说“要使你的听众发笑，你就必须知道如何识别你和他人的共同的经历和问题”，这个就是本题解答的关键。加上第一段第三句话“Depending on whom you are addressing, the problems will be different。”(你的问题因人而异。)[A]说利用不同的观众，这个提法中的“利用”词义本身就有侵害客体的含义，让人觉得是在利用别人的弱点，而且和上文提到的“幽默须知”显然不符合。[B]仅仅是作者例举的一个例子，用来表示如何和别人分享经历。[C]很好地表达了第一段的主题。[D]错在其范围被缩小了。

2. The joke about doctors implies that, in the eyes of nurses,they are

关于医生的这个笑话表明，在护士眼里，医生

[A]impolite to new arrivals. 对新人不礼貌。

[B]very conscious of their godlike role. 对自己上帝般的作用非常在意。

[C]entitled to some privileges. 有权获得某些特权。

[D]very busy even during lunch hours. 午饭时也非常繁忙。

【答案】 B

【考点】 推断题。

【分析】 根据本题的题干，定位为第二段，本题讲述了一个经典的护士看待医生的笑话，将上帝比作医生那样表现的傲慢无理。考生应该明白这里实际上是在说医生将自己比作上帝，显得那么傲慢无礼。[A]只是医生傲慢举止中的一项。[B]非常恰当，因为它揭示了护士群体眼中的医生那种傲慢的感觉。[C]认为获得某种特权，是因为没有理解“St.Peter”的话，被“医生把新来的人推到一边，冲到队伍的最前面”这个现象误导，享有特权的印象是中性的描述，其实揭示背后所反应的医生的傲慢才是主要目的。[D]选项显然错误。

3. It can be inferred from the text that public services

从文中可以推断出，公共服务

[A]have benefited many people. 已经造福很多人。

[B]are the focus of public attention. 是大众关注的焦点。

[C]are an inappropriate subject for humor. 是一个不适合做幽默的主题。

[D]have often been the laughing stock。经常是别人的笑料。

【答案】 D

【考点】 推理题。

【分析】 根据公共服务可以定位到第三段最后一句，这句话中提到了“邮局”和“电话”这两个行业。文章说“安全的做法是咬住一些替罪羊比如邮局和电话业，之所以安全是因为这样不会冒犯什么人”。既然是这样，那么肯定大家经常会拿这个“公共服务业”来开玩笑的。因此可以得出结论，即[D]是正确选项。[A]和文章的主旨没有关系，这里也推断不出这样的结论。[B]说是大众关注的焦点，但是这句话没有表现出原文对这两个公共行业的一种戏谑的意味。

4. To achieve the desired result, humorous stories should bedelivered

为获得理想的效果，幽默故事的讲述应当

[A]in well-worded language. 言词适当。

[B]as awkwardly as possible. 尽可能含糊。

[C]in exaggerated statements. 夸张。

[D]as casually as possible. 尽可能随意。

【答案】 D

【考点】 段落主旨题。

【分析】 本文题目问的实际上是幽默故事的讲述方式，可以定位到第四段，它指出幽默要“自然”(natural)，“随意”(casual)，“急兴”(off-the-cut)，“放松”(relaxed)，“舒缓”(unforced)，“缓慢”(slowly)，“轻松”(light-hearted)。只要考生看懂了这些词的意思，这道题就很容易会选择[D]选项。

5. The best title for the text may be 本文最佳标题或许是

[A]Use Humor Effectively. 有效使用幽默。

[B]Various Kinds of Humor. 各式幽默。

[C]Add Humor to Speech. 为演讲添加幽默。

[D]Different Humor Strategies. 不同的幽默策略。

【答案】 A

【考点】 文章主旨题。

【分析】 本题考的是对全文的理解，这样的题目需要对全文的通读和理解。[A]能够很好地表示在文中作者教会别人怎样有效地使用幽默这样一个事实。而[B]不合适，是因为本文中并没有谈论幽默的种类。[C]仅仅讲出了幽默的必要性，但是不能体现出文中教人学会幽默的思想。文章中最后一段也提到不同的幽默策略，但是那仅仅是文章主旨的一小部分。

难句解析：

1. Your humor must be relevant to the audience and should help toshow them that you are one of them or that you understand their situation andare in sympathy with their point of view。

【结构分析】该句的主语是“your humor”，后面有并列的谓语“must be”和“should help to show”，其中后一个谓语的宾语中“them”是间接宾语，加上两个并列的宾语从句做直接宾语：“that you are one of them”和“that youunderstand their situation and are in sympathy with their point of view”。

2. If you are part of the group which you are addressing, you willbe in a position to know the experiences and problems which are common to allof you and it’ll be appropriate for you to make a passing remark about theinedible canteen food or the chairman’s notorious bad taste in ties。

【结构分析】“if”引导了一个条件从句，而后面的主句是两个分句构成的并列句。在第一个分句中有一个定语从句“which are common to all of you”，来修饰“the experiencesand problems”，而后面的分句的结构是一个“it is +形容词+for sb. to do sth。”的结构。

3. Often it’s the delivery which causes the audience to smile, sospeak slowly and remember that a raised eyebrow or an unbelieving look may helpto show that you are making a light-hearted remark。

【结构分析】本句是由“so”连接的并列句，前是因，后是果。前一分句是一个复合句结构，而后一分句是一个祈使句，其谓语动词是“speak”和“remember”。而“remember”后面是“that”引导的一个很长的宾语从句。

全文翻译：

如果你想在谈话中用幽默来使人发笑，你就必须知道如何识别共同的经历和问题。你的幽默必须和听众有关，应该帮助你向他们显示你是他们当中的一员，你了解他们的情况，同情他们的观点。根据你谈话对象的不同，问题也有所不同。如果你在和一群经理谈话，你就可以提及他们秘书的混乱的方法;或者，如果你说话的对象是一群秘书，你就可以评价一下她们没有条理的老板。

这里就有一个这样的例子，是我在一个护士大会上听到的。这个故事效果很好，因为所有的听众都对医生有同样的看法。说，有一个人到了天堂，正被圣·彼得带着四处参观。他看到了令人惊奇的住所、美丽的花园、晴朗的天气等等。每一个人都很平和、礼貌和友善，直到排队吃午饭的时候，这位新来的人突然被一位身穿白大褂的人推到一旁，只见该人径直挤到了队伍的前头，抓起食物，大摇大摆走到一张餐桌旁。“这是谁啊?”新来的人问圣·彼得。“哦，那是上帝，”他回答说，“他有时自以为是名医生。”

如果你是你谈话对象的一部分，你就会了解大伙共同的经历和问题，你就可对餐厅难以下咽的食物或者总裁在领带方面差劲的品味评头论足。而对于其他类型的听众，你就不能试图插嘴地讲这种幽默，因为他们也许不喜欢外人诋毁他们的餐厅或总裁。如果你咬住邮局或电话局这样的替罪羊，那你就处于更加安全的境地。

如果你在幽默时觉得很尴尬，你就必须进行练习使它变得更自然。加入一些很随便的、显然是即兴的话的同时你就可以用轻松的、不做作的方式把它们说出来了。常常是表达的方式使听众发笑，因此要说慢一些，并且记住要抬抬眉毛或者做出一种不相信的表情，这些都会有助于显示你正在说笑话。

寻找幽默，它常常来的出其不意。恶搞一下名言“你要是一开始不成功，不如放弃”，或者是玩文字游戏和戏谑某个场景。寻找夸张用语和打折扣的话。看看你的谈话，挑几个能够倒过来说的词汇和句子，再注入一些幽默。